Ousted Men’s Wearhouse Founder Says He Didn’t Get Severance

Men’s Wearhouse founder George Zimmer says in a new interview that he was ousted without pay after refusing to take a “figurehead” position in the company.

“I got no severance,” Zimmer toldFortune in an interview published Monday. “They even took my phone and cut off my insurance.”

Zimmer, who founded the company 40 years ago was the face of the retailer as the pitchman ubiquitous in its ads (“You’re going to like the way you look. I guarantee it.”), handed over the CEO position in 2011 but remained executive chairman until his abrupt firing in June.

Ten days earlier, he told Fortune, he received an “extremely harsh and mean-spirited” email. “Then they basically began throwing me out of my office, and that was as traumatic as when I was actually terminated because, at that point, it was pretty clear what was happening.”